The employers have welcomed the labour reform of the PP, which had hitherto tied their hands and which can now be released when it comes to problems in the company. Adegi President Eduardo Zubiaurre explained this in the interview he has just offered in Berria: “To do so, we need the tools that labor reform has given us. In the event of changes, take decisions and measures quickly, economically and without administrative authorization.” The employers were tied to the current situation and the employment relationship was unbalanced in relation to workers. They have now been balanced, and in the Zubiaurre fund you referred to the rapid and economic dismissal of workers. And that's going to create jobs.

The point is that there are few who think that this is going to create jobs, and pp himself, at least this year. Among economists, however, less believes this, because without activating the economy there will be no economic growth and without that there will be no jobs, even with a dozen of those reforms. This is also known by pp leaders, but this re-adaptation of labor relations is in line with the labor flexibility that these so-called markets are demanding at international level in recent decades. The Spanish trade unions are not going to say that the pp has committed fraud or that it is not expected, after the PSOE has cut the way, the right has always done what it dreamed long ago.

The fact is that in Euskal Herria on 29 March there will be a general strike called by ELA, LAB and four other unions of the trade union majority. And, except for many surprises, it might be predicted that it will be a general strike in the last two or three years. Everyone has their weapons and the workers show theirs, albeit in a fractional manner. CCOO and UGT have also welcomed the demonstrations carried out by them last weekend and stressed that the door to the general strike is not closed.

The profound differences between the two main trade union blocs are well known: the labour and economic areas claimed to be different and also the trade union model. The serious economic situation and the relentless thrust of neo-liberalism, however, should encourage dialogue and joint action, at least in some cases. It is difficult, but they should try, at least in Euskal Herria the result would be very different, that is certain. Unfortunately, will there be time for that? And will?

The answer and the protests are always important, they show that the future of a society cannot be left alone in parliamentary decisions, that the class struggle was not exhausted with the development of the welfare state, and that history has not ended, as Fukuyama announced with the fall of the Berlin Wall.

BUT IT IS TIME, too, for the workers to delve into the current model of economic relations and do so in other alternatives: to explore the updated formulas of that old slogan of the appropriation of the productive processes of the worker. And that in today's Europe is called the social economy. The Basque Country has a long way to go in the field of social economy, especially because of its rich cooperative experience, but today there are other ways to approach this economic model, including Anonymous Labour Companies or NGOs.

Paradise is not yet known in this world, but the advantages of the social economy are of all kinds, both in terms of the employment relationship and the response to crisis situations. The division of ownership, participation, solidarity, respect, corporate sovereignty, greater labor democracy… are fundamental values that have a better soil in the social economy. What respect and dignity is there when one of the subjects of labour relations – the employer – says ‘on the street!’ and the other – the worker – has nothing but to go out into the street? Of course, go out on the street, be it on March 29 or any other day.